In the online world, your life, the data that makes up your online identity is stored forever. Everyone is going to be able to see everything you’ve ever done. Not just now but forever.

Think about this from the perspective of a little kid today. My 9 year old brother has a Facebook now. My little brother is going to have everything about his life from this point on documented online in some form. Crazy right?

I have some new mother Facebook friends and they post pictures of their kids and status updates about what their kids are doing all the time. These kids are having their entire lives documented online from Day One!

Guess what? You’re going to have your life documented online for the rest of your life too.

In the past legacy was for history books, famous people and word of mouth stories from your parents. This is such a huge change from how it used to be. Now everyone has a legacy, and everyone can see it.

When my great, great, grandkids want to see who their great great grandfather was, all they’re going to have to do is go to google (or the future’s equivalent) and type in my name. Realize that!

Leaving a Positive Legacy

You’re the ultimate authority on your online identity. There will likely always be somebody out there who wants to trash you, but if you’ve put enough good stuff online to back up who you are, it won’t matter.

Think about the legacy you’re leaving from time to time.

Please leave a comment below and share your thoughts!

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I feel a bit conflicted on this. I don’t feel like I have anything to hide but currently I keep certain elements of my Facebook profile hidden. As an example, I only let certain friends view my photos. I do this because I only want certain people who I feel comfortable with to be able to see tagged photos of me.

At the same time though this I realize this is dumb.

I can always untag a photo of me if I don’t want people to see it right, but if the person who took the picture of me doesn’t take it down than what’s the point? The photo is still out there on the internet to be found. I’m just burying it a little deeper.

How do you handle this?

I think you have to be transparent. You can’t expect to bury anything and have it just go away. You’ve gotta be a PR person. Address it and move on. Don’t hide.

Everyone’s in the media business now.

There’s pictures of me on my facebook drinking alcohol, eating fast food, and making obscene gestures. (someone’s going right to Facebook to find these, haha) I don’t do any of these things anymore, so should I hide all of those photos because they don’t align with the person I am now? I suppose I could and I guess it’s really a personal choice, but I think it’s better to leave them up and not hide who I used to be.

I’m not proud of those things (although I did have some epic nights as a drinker) but it’s part of my story, ya know? Yea I got drunk, and did some stupid things. So what? I bet I’m not the only one

So after writing this I’ll probably be a little looser with my online privacy settings and see what happens.

Consequences

Do you see any possible consequences to this?

My hope is that through transparency our society will become a lot more accepting.

For example if I’m going through a tough part of my life I’ll be able to share it online and have support during that time. People will use their social networks for growth and development.

There could be negative consequences too. Maybe I’ll become unemployable because of my lack of privacy.

Here’s some questions to think about for comments:

How do you handle your privacy on social networks?
Do you think transparency is a good idea or bad idea?

Looking forward to you answers! And Happy New Year!

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